Falcon Northwest FragBox Review: Tiny Gaming PC, Big Performance

As we exposed on the day Intel formally launched the world’s initial 6GHz CPU, the Main i9-13900KS, the folks in excess of at Falcon Northwest experienced hooked us up with just one of their compact FragBox PCs bearing this warm new processor. We broke protect on our FragBox assessment unit to give people a flavor of what the Core i9-13900KS coul do, but now we’re back again with our entire overview of this spectacular small equipment. The FragBox we examined options not only the best customer-course processor that Intel has to offer you, but also NVIDIA’s top rated of the line GeForce RTX 4090. Pair all those two powerhouses with 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB PCIe 4 M.2 SSD, and a 1000w energy provide, arange it all into a transportable chassis, and you have got 1 powerful offer primed for some severe LAN social gathering motion.

The FragBox dates back many years, with Falcon Northwest’s advertising and marketing content proudly exhibiting pictures of the FragBox in Personal computer components publications from the early 2000s. Inspite of this history, we’ve somehow hardly ever reviewed just one of these units over the equally prolonged run of our publication. That explained, we have reviewed and offered away numerous variations of Falcon Northwest’s Tiki and Talon gaming rigs. Acquiring been impressed by these units around the yrs, we ended up eager to eventually get our hands on a FragBox for overview.

The moment out of its packaging, the FragBox appears and feels durable and perfectly-set-alongside one another. There’s absolutely practically nothing chintzy about the machine’s healthy and end. The major of the circumstance characteristics an arched manage that will make the system uncomplicated to pickup without having obstructing air circulation from the hexagon-patterned venting beneath. We really significantly appreciate the extra utility of the manage, specifically specified that it seems as a normal factor of the case structure, while we’ll observe that we uncovered the handle to be most effective for merely lifting the FragBox.

When carrying the procedure by the manage for any prolonged interval, the metallic edges have a tendency to dig into your hand, swiftly producing it an not comfortable knowledge. Fortuitously, the FragBox is nevertheless somewhat light for a desktop Pc at 27 lbs, generating it rather non-strenuous activity to elevate the box by the handle, then carry it in your arms. This degree of portability would make us want to search for out LAN get-togethers, although our major and unwieldy full-sized tower PCs do not.

Falcon Northwest’s brand is emblazoned on the entrance of the case and illuminated by RGB LEDs. This lighting zone is customizable and syncs with the LED lights of the inner elements, which shines by way of the vents on the two sides of the circumstance. The illuminated Falcon Northwest emblem accents the normally uniformly black chassis created of sound aluminum. A single may possibly observe that the FragBox is not as flashy or fancy-wanting as some other systems, but we like the a lot more subdued style. This method appears to be like like it suggests company, which befits its name.

An even bigger choice of ports sits close to back, including two jacks for a dedicated antenna for wi-fi connectivity. Between eight USB Style-A ports and two USB Variety-C ports of a variety of forms, purchasers ought to ideally have all of their USB requires satisfied. The motherboard’s port collection also features one HDMI 2. port and 1 DisplayPort 1.4 port, both of which are pushed by the Core i9-13900KS’ integrated graphics. Having said that, most consumers will not want to make use of these two ports when the beefy GeForce RTX 4090 features a single HDMI 2.1 port and 3 DisplayPort 1.4a hook-ups.

Apart from the ports, Falcon Northwest hides a minor little bit of bling on the again of the FragBox in the kind of a custom polished plate bearing the buyer’s name. We’d also like to stage out the nifty very little thumb screws that safe the aspect and top rated panels to the scenario. These captive screws are integrated into the panels with metal retainers that retain hold of the screws when loosened so you are unable to misplace thesm. We love neat tiny touches like this.

The AIO cooler up leading is aided by a pair of lesser supporters mounted to the remaining facet of the circumstance that suck in new great air to assist hold internal temps down. We need to also be aware listed here that the capability to take away not only the two sides of the circumstance, but also the top, helps make cleaning and tinkering with the FragBox simpler than a person could anticipate specified its compact dimensions. The placement of the 280mm cooler to the proper of the GPU helps make for a window as a result of which one could clear away and exchange the graphics card with out any more disassembly.

This kind of immediate obtain to a element commonly upgraded in the everyday living of a Computer system makes the system more customer-pleasant. That said, if the expansion in the dimension of graphics playing cards proceeds, you may perhaps not be able to in good shape an upgraded GPU by the provided obtain window. The shrouds on some vendors’ graphics playing cards are already so significant we’re worried they would establish to be a very tight match inside of the FragBox.

Over-all, we are fairly amazed with the sort issue, develop excellent, and notice to element exhibited by Falcon Northwest’s FragBox. The only genuine worry we had for the duration of our actual physical inspection of the method was elicited by a rattling sound we listened to even though moving the process all over. We eliminated a single of the facet panels and uncovered two free screws that were sliding close to the base of the case. The good thing is, the motherboard was nonetheless nicely hooked up to the chassis by the remaining screws, so no destruction was sustained during transport. Just after getting the two free screws, we simply just returned them to their appropriate areas, tightened them down, and have not had any problems considering the fact that. However, we hope that unfastened screws aren’t a common difficulty amongst FragBoxes and other Falcon Northwest products.

With that mentioned, let us hearth up the FragBox and see what it can do…